Rebuilds run around a grand if you do one locally. Helps if you have access to spare parts just in case something is really messed up. Easy to rebuild these things. They go together pretty much like a T5 so any competent tranny shop can do them. They may not be willing to find all the parts so its better if you grab the basic rebuild parts yourself and drop them off with the tranny. At a minimum you will need bearings, gaskets, oil pump, seals, and synchro rings. Those should run you 300 to 350. Been a while since I had one rebuilt, but I use to drop off a couple at a time and the guy would work on them at his leisure and charge me 300 cash a piece. If you can find a shop that will pull the tranny, rebuild it, and reinstall it for $1500 plus the cost of a new clutch, you are doing pretty well. Just remember the trannys had a crossover point where they went to larger bearings. The TR8s except for early coupes, had the later style, but that doesn't mean someone hasn't swapped in one of the earlier ones. Order parts based on the serial number on the case. Don't just assume its a TR8 so it has a later trans. A known good 5 speed should be worth about $300. A unknown one but one that doesn't have a sloppy input shaft is worth $175-200. One with a sloppy shaft is a $75 parts box needing a rebuild. I see them listed for way more than that, so maybe a new guy with no connections might pay that in desperation. First thing to go on these is the first bearing on the input shaft. Seen many of these go bad. Tranny gets low on fluid. Drive around town and you don't build enough heat to cause an issue. Get on the highway and go for a one hour trip. Driving along no problem and then the bearing starts to seize, power drops, you pull over and then it seizes completely. Call a tow truck. If your trans has a TR8 part number, rebuild it. Keeping that part number may make a difference somewhere down the road as opposed to swapping in a box with a TR7 number. Try to keep it local and save shipping costs.

CL for TR7 CN for TR8. Changeover to bigger bearings and shafts was box #22476/22477. No internal difference between a 7 and an 8 box other than speedo drive gears, because 7s and 8s have different ratio rear ends. 8s have a slightly shorter shifter quadrant than the 7 quadrants. The two also have different shift arm pivot pins, and different throwout bearing carriers because the clutch covers and flywheels are not the same. Like I said before, pretty basic 5 speed box. Any competent rebuilder can do them. Doesn't need to be an overpriced British specialty shop. Chances are the British shop will just send it out anyway and mark up the price. Thats what the shop mentioned earlier in this thread does. Then if something isn't right, you have to mail it back across the country and trust the shop that sends it out is going to cover the mistake the shop he sent it out to created. Yea, no thanks. Take it someplace local and then if something is wrong, there is no question who is responsible.

BTW, based on your description, this probably isn't the problem, but have you checked the bushings on the shifter extension? The original rubber ones can disintegrate over the years, if they've never been replaced, they could be completely gone. This can make it hard to select gears. An easy check is to try lifting the shifter straight up. It shouldn't have any movement in that direction, if it does, the bushing on the extension are going or gone. They can be replaced without removing the gearbox, either from underneath the car, or even from the inside.

you can check with john at quantum mechanics in oxford Connecticut...he rebuilds the TR8 LT77 5 speed (believe for wedgeshop also) other british marque trannies...when I lived in Connecticut near him I visited the shop(9 yrs ago) and he does all the work himself and knows these boxes well and has replacement hard parts...don't know if he is still in business and best to call and talk live...
http://www.quantumechanics.com/

Before spending a lot of money on transmission / clutch repairs, first try changing your trans oil to Pennzoil Synchromesh Fluid 3501. I had a similar problem in 2nd gear only and only until the gearbox warmed up. The Synchromesh fluid cured it completely. It should be available at your local auto parts store.

One thing I've learned(the hard way)over the years is try the easy stuff first, while you don't have any play in your shifter the bushings are most likely original. I'd change them out first, they're cheap, you can do them with the tranny in the car, and if you have to rebuild the tranny they'll be replaced anyway. I'd also try Rick's oil recommendation, or some type of super slippery Slick 50 type of oil, what have you got to lose? Speaking of oil, what did the oil you drained look like, were there any metal bits, was there an excessively heavy metallic?

Rick,

Sweet looking Jensen-Healey, I've had mine for 24 years and love it. From time to time on these various boards questions of performance increase or adding a new car to someone's stable come up, my recommendation that they consider a Jensen-Healey as an alternative almost always falls on deaf ears, I guess it's the black sheep in the family of black sheep.

I did change the oil with Pennzoil Synchromesh, but it did not seem to make a difference and I did not have any real metal shavings in the old oil
or on the drain plug. but at the same time the the weather
was much older and that did seem to make a difference for the worst.

So I will change the bushings and try some Slick 50---May have to wait until Spring to really know if it helped.
Only drive the car in Summer anyway so I can wait before I jump into any real repair cost.

There is a company in England called Rimmer Brothers and they do all the reproduction parts and some original parts for TR8’s in fact they have every part and you could build a brand new car as they do heritage body shells and wings. They do exchange gear boxes for around £500 so roughly $750 with strengthened bearings so would sort out your gearbox problem as I reckon you be looking at $800-1000 to have a rebuilt gearbox with standard bearings in the USA? Check out there website at www.rimmerbros.co.uk

I tried looking for someone locally to rebuild my L77 manual transmission and came up with zilch! Being fearless (or just plain dumb) I decided to tackle the job myself.

Of course after having ordered all of the seals and gaskets, and an oil pump myself, I found an outfit in the UK (autogearshop on eBay) that sells a rebuild kit with not only seals and gaskets, but new bearings, as well.

My donor unit only had 48K miles on it and didn't appear to be leaking when I started the teardown. Having to check not only the condition of the gear and synchronizers, but also the condition of the bearings, I might have saved myself some time if I had just replaced the bearing (part of the UK kit). I was lucky and the gears/synchronizers only had minor wear and were re-used. I also replaced the deteriorated (to the point of nonexistence in some cases) rubber shift tunnel bushings. Lastly I replaced the clutch, pressure plate, and through-out (release) bearing. I also went from a brass pilot bushing to the a needle pilot bearing and shaved and lightened to flywheel.

I've since adopted a frame of mine that is easier to replace a part that may be suspect than tp worry that I didn't check it properly.

This is not a job for the faint of heart, but it can be done with basic shop tools (including a really big hammer), a lot of adult beverage, and a digital caliper. I also had an elaborate transmission stand consisting of two cinder blocks from Lowes, as seen in one of the photos, and I only had to assemble one of the synchros twice (damn hand drawn pictures in the UK manual).

The rebuild cost me less than $50 USD, and I now have bragging right on having done it myself.